We occasionally get a call from customers that buy a brand new Newer Technology NuPower Ti 4400mAh or 4800mAh battery. And, in all but a few rare cases, the PowerBook itself has been the culprit. Titanium is a very durable metal, but it is not rigid like steel or aluminum, it flexes. And after a year or two of use, sometimes the PowerBook's case itself can be warped just enough at the corner of the machine to let the battery slide around a bit, making the contacts inside the battery lose connection (or not connect fully at all). If you turn your machine over and look at the design of the battery bay, you'll see that the metal is much more thin around the perimeter of the bay, for obvious reasons. If you've ever had the unfortunate occurrence of dropping your PowerBook or the bag it's in has taken a tumble, this could easily shift things around and the heavy battery can stretch the bay just enough to cause problems.

The most simple fix in this case is to place something on the opposite side of the battery contacts, in this situation we've found that simple felt bumpers seem to do the trick very well. Pictured above is a modified battery with 4 felt bumpers straddling the 2 clips that hold it into the bottom of the PowerBook.

High tech? Definitely not. Sometimes low tech fixes are the most simple and cost effective. While it's likely you'll never need to do this to your laptop's battery, it may come in handy in the future to save yourself some headaches if your battery doesn't seem to want to work!